Spam Now Legal In The US

from the wonderful dept

As expected, President Bush signed the so-called "CAN SPAM" bill into law today, effectively legalizing spam. What the law does is make sure that anyone now has the right to spam you legitimately, so long as they provide contact information and a way to opt-out. This means, the floodgates will open as all those out-of-work telemarketers now have a new job: spamming you. Wasn't the law supposed to stop spam? Well, the one anti-spam idea in the bill is that it bans people from faking headers for the sake of spamming - which would make a difference if spammers actually cared about the law. They've shown already that they're not too concerned, and thanks to their ability to fake headers and route their spam through many different computers, it will be very difficult to track them down. So, now we'll be getting much more "legitimate" spam, and just as much, if not more, fraudulent spam. Why is this a good law again?

Reader Comments

Spam is not bad

I was reading the article on spamming laws. I am a proffesional business man and market my clients products and services for a living as one of my many businesses I own. Spam is usually thought of as criminal or looked down upon. It really is no different than getting advertisements in your mail at home, so whats really the big deal? No one complains about getting advertisements in the mail but they complain about getting offers in their E-mail box. One of my methods of marketing is mass mail marketing, and so called "spamming" or mass E-mail marketing. Spamming is the same as mass mail marketing except with E-mails rather than actual addresses. Mass mail marketing is not looked down upon, so why should "mass Email marketing"? And most of my customers have found about about my services through emails I have sent out and most of them are satisfied with the products or services I offer. The new "laws" actually make it extremely hard for people to do mass email marketing rather than make it easier. It was legal to spam before these new sets of laws but now they just make it harder for legitimate business men like me just trying to earn a living.

DEATH TO THE IGNORANT SPAMMER

Actually you are a disease. SPAM is the lowest crappiest form of internet advertising and actually shows how lazy your company is, and in this day and age of saavy internet users who DETEST SPAMMERS will turn away business to other companys who use legitimate forms of advertising. Aside from that you are also contributing to the 300+ crap mails that each american deletes every morning, thanks jerk off. Internet advocates like me will continue to wage a furious fight agains spam until it is all stopmed out and idiots like you will STFU! You weak argument is "they just make it harder for legitimate business men like me just trying to earn a living." ummm.... if your a spammer your not legitimate, you are just a failure so who cares what happens to you as long as your pollution of a once usable internet is stopped. Thanks for admitting to the world your stupidity and greed, now go find a legitimate form of advertising for this your companys or stop calling your self "a proffesional business man" If SPAM is the best you can do. You suck at marketing.

Re: DEATH TO THE IGNORANT SPAMMER

Hmmm...I wonder who the real jerk is here... Aside of using criminal language ("DEATH TO THE IGNORANT SPAMMER") I wonder whether you realize that by trying to stop the truly obnoxious Viagra and sex promoters, you are throwing the baby out with the bath water. You probably don’t. Why should a small start-up not be able to seek contacts through mass-mailing? If all you ask for is a meeting or the permission to make a call and you do it by offering a really unique service or product, presented professionally and you spend the money to target it (as much as possible and it ain't cheap to get such data bases) to a professional audience likely to be interested, this is not SPAM in my book. And classifying it as SPAM is tantamount to favoring big business against small business. I would not be surprised if you were among those who complain that "Big banks are screwing the public". Well my friend, if "big banks", and others that are big, can eliminate the competition of those you call "idiots" and "lazy", they will screw us all more and more... until the ultimate effect: having the government provide everything to everybody. Yes, whether you know it or not, your intransigence makes a political statement. At it is not a constructive one. At the end of this road lies a society which you probably have only heard of but in which I spent a good part of my career. And it ain't pretty: it's called Communism. Bringing a solution to this real quandary would be constructive. What you do is destructive and I daresay criminal... very white collar but criminal nevertheless… like your title implies, most likely unconsciously. Just think of all these "too-big-to-fail" entities. It would be impossible for them to survive if a vibrant small business existed in their space. But it does not and the TBTF’s do whatever they can to kill them (here is that word again) and whatever is left is dwindling, to a large extent through the good offices of ignorant "do-gooders" like yourself. Think of it and be ashamed of it if you have a scintilla of common sense and honesty left in you.

Re: Re: DEATH TO THE IGNORANT SPAMMER

Amen Brother. Spam in my opinion is an email that has a deceiving subject line/unethical or unprofessional content and/or does not give the recipient a way to opt out. I wish the government would crack down on rip off artists that do it the wrong way and don't follow the rules(which are really easy to follow) I send out emails to prospective commercial clients all the time and very rarely receive a harsh word because I follow the rules and sell a legitimate and ethical product. People like this idiot don't think before they speak and don't understand that business owners are simply trying to find the most cost effective and ethical way to reach their potential clients. I own a mailing list company and got into commercial and residential email compilation 5 years ago. 90% of my mailing list clients switched to emailing and haven't looked back sense. This guy Probably works for a successful person, lives a a crappy 1 bedroom apartment and snarls at successful people instead of trying to rise to their success.

You speak the truth man. Its too bad more people don't have our outlook.

Spam is Actually Good.

Spam is actually good and not malicious. Think about it, would you rather get advertising in the mail, have to open it, carry it back to the house, generate waste by throwing it away, and so on. Or get a simple email, you can get rid of in a click? Besides, it really is effective. If spam is controlled and sent out to the right demographic, your business can generate enourmous profit in a short time. I'm proof of that. I think everyone is anti-spam because they really don't understand what it's replacing. Don't be blind folks, we're not calling you during dinner or filling up your real mailbox.

Re: Spam is Actually Good.

amen to that. Their are always morons that will complain no matter what you do. If you email them they will complain. If you mail them they will complain. If you telemarket them they will complain. They think the world revolves around them and simply do not understand that 90% of businesses(big or small) rely on advertising that will be understood by most and whined about by a few.